Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is sponsoring Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock. Come enjoy hearing poetry read aloud and learn about less familiar poetic forms, such as haiku and senryu.

Lauren K. Alleyne is Poet-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. Alleyne is a native of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has been published in numerous journals: Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Kennesaw Review, and The Caribbean Writer. She won the International Publication Prize from The Atlanta Review and the Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Dawn in the Kaatskills, was published in 2008, and she is co-editor of the anthology From the Heart of Brooklyn. Alleyne earned a B.A. from St. Francis College, an M.A. from Iowa State University, and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.

Francine Banwarth lives in Dubuque and began studying haiku in 1988. She is a cofounder of Haiku Dubuque, which recently published The River Knows the Way. She has received numerous awards for her haiku and senryu; and her haiku, senryu, rengay, and haibun have been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and chapbooks. She currently serves as editor of Frogpond, the major publication since 1978 of the Haiku Society of America. Banwarth earned a B.A. from Clarke University.

James Pollock is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Loras College in Dubuque. He is the author of two books to be published in 2012: Sailing to Babylon, a collection of poetry, and You Are Here: Essays on Criticism and the Art of Poetry in Canada. His poetry has been published in numerous journals: The Paris Review, Poetry Daily, The Fiddlehead, AGNI, Geist, Southern Poetry Review, and Canadian Literature. He earned an Honors B.A. in English literature and creative writing from York University (Toronto), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. He was a John Woods Scholar in poetry at the Prague Summer Program at Charles University, and a work-study scholar in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Mr. Pollock lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information, please call the Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 563-589-4225.